Friday, 30 November 2012

Business and Economy, China, Law, Laws of the Sea, South China Sea

Border patrol police in China's southernmost province of Hainan on
Tuesday were given the power to embark on and check ships which
illegally enter its waters.

Detailed Regulations

A newly revised maritime regulation was enacted by the Standing Committee of Hainan Provincial People's Congress on November 27.

★The regulation defines six practices of illegal
activities of foreign ships or crews. These include illegal landing on
the islands under the jurisdiction of Hainan, damaging coastal defense
facilities or facilities for production and living, and carrying out
publicity campaigns that endanger China's national security.

★Hainan border police are entitled to use these
measures to stop the illegally entering ships or to force them into
changing or reversing course

★According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,
foreign ships are only allowed to make inoffensive passage through
China's territorial waters, meaning they can neither stop nor drop
anchor.

★In the past, when foreign ships broke the UN
convention, the best thing our patrol force could do was chase them out
of China's waters. This new regulation will change that situation and
grant the patrol force the legal means to actually do its job.

Photo: China's National Administration
of Surveying, Mapping and
Geoinformation

★The South China Sea covers
an area of 700,000 square kilometers, and some 200,000 square
kilometers of waters are settled. The region has abundant resources of
oil and natural gas, and some surrounding countries have been exploring
resources there for years.

★China has declared indisputable
sovereignty over South China Sea islands and their surrounding waters,
but several Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam and the
Philippines, have made competing claims.

★Countries including Vietnam, Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines lay claim to parts of the South
China Sea, which contains important shipping routes and is also believed
to contain rich oil and gas reserves. The issues in the South China Sea
are not only a conflict over the islands, but also includes resources
of oil and natural gas, underwater archaeology, hydrogeothermal and
fishery.

GT editorial: The
idea of establishing Sansha city emerged as early as 2007, but was
shelved due to protests by Vietnam. Now China has taken a concrete step,
signaling its determination to administer the Nansha Islands and
related sea areas. The new level of management carries more weight than
the law of Vietnam.More

The
on-going passport row can be solved via diplomatic channels. After
all, it is not possible to suspend Sino-foreign personnel exchanges due
to this episode.------Zhao Gancheng, an expert on Southeast Asia at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies

The standoff over Huangyan Island in the South China Sea
continues and Manila appears fully prepared to create more tensions.

China's
foreign ministry has noted that China is fully prepared to respond to
Manila's move to escalate the situation. The remarks are seen as China
sending a sign that it will not rule out the use of force.

The nation's first indigenous deep-water drilling rig, the
CNOOC 981, will begin operations on May 9 in an area in the South China
Sea 320 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong.

The move, hailed by analysts as an effective way to
reinforce China's territorial claims in the region, came amid an ongoing
standoff between Chinese and Philippine ships in waters near Huangyan
Island.

China is de-escalating the situation in Huangyan Island in
South China Sea by withdrawing two law enforcement vessels, Zhang Hua,
spokesman of Chinese Embassy in the Philippines said on April 23.

Two Chinese vessels, a Fishery Administration ship
"Yuzheng-310 " and a Chinese Maritime Surveillance ship No. 084, have
already left the Huangyan Island area by April 22, Zhang said. "There is
only one Maritime Surveillance ship remaining in the Huangyan Island
area for its law enforcement mission."

Vietnam's immigration authorities are issuing separate visa
sheets to new Chinese passport holders instead of stamping directly on
visa pages, after Beijing issued new passports that include a map of
territories also claimed by other countries.